KISS? Keep it sharp ...

I've spent about 5 hours this weekend bringing my motley collection of chisels up to scratch, edge wise. I started in 1971 with three Stanley 'black' chisels. In the eighties I splashed out on some really nice Japanese chisels, DAITEI Mini Oire Nomi Suminagashi as shown at Dieter Schmidts site. They are nice, but a real faff to bring up to spec. The blade edges are basically unsuited to 'normal' (i.e. cheap) honing guides. Less so on the half inch and upwards sizes, more so on the really narrow ones. See Dieters site for the basics. Anyway, I basically went through all my chisels start to finish. Medium diamond whetstone through to a 12000 grit Kingstone. Except for the fine chisels. I've two that cause me grief. One is four mm wide and the bevel is just too small to 'feel' whilst on the whetstone. So I went off hunting for a honing guide which would do the job.

Now in general the UK is happy to come up with ideas, then sits back and waits while other nations nick 'em and patent 'em. That seems a common trend over a long period. One sort of exception is the 'individual'. Some chap (probably women too) who sits in a corner and comes up with a way of scratching an itch that is simple, effective and bloody well made. I used to read of a guy who was trained as an ornamental turner. Used to turn out billiard balls, braille erasers by the thousand a day etc. He had a ramshackle lathe that was a real health hazard, matching the general condition of his workshop. The products and ideas he came up with were amazing. Image. people such as these I find truly worthy of the highest respect. Anyway. The UK seems to have its fair share of Engineers. People who seem to measure and cut and come up with just the length they want. I can't say it's an innate skill, but something, quite possibly a good apprenticeship, seems to give them both a love of engineering and the skills to turn ideas into hardware. The design side comes almost as a seperate thing. Again some have it some don't. Bill did. If you are interested and like chasing second hand books, Bill Jones’s Notes from the Turning Shop. Guild of Master Craftsmen. ISBN 1-86108-017-4 and Bill Jones’s Further Notes from the Turning Shop. Guild of Master Craftsmen. ISBN 1-86108-036-0S. These are his two books

I went googling around for another honing guide and I think I've found another such person. Richard Kell is his name. these are his honing guides, this shows them in use. The ideas are based on existing technology. The genius to my way of thinking is how he's taken a few key elements and built them into a simple product, well executed (even his 'sketches' are marked as being to with half a degree, see this jpeg image. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? According to the reviews I've seen it's one more of those You get what you pay for. I'll let you know once I've worked out which one to buy. He responded to my email the same day, something often lacking in regular tool suppliers.

If you're a fly fisherman, he does some reels that look good enough to have stuffed and mounted. At the price perhaps that's a real consideration.